Burton Custom Flying V: I see wood on the edge of my new board. Is this normal?

Hi everyone,

I've been boarding for 3 years, but only for a week at a time, so I'm still very much a newb. I just moved to an area where I can go a lot more often, so I decided to get my first board. Spent a lot of time researching and talking to people a lot more knowledgable than me, and I wound up with a Burton Custom Flying V.

Beautiful board, but I noticed something that I didn't expect: there seems to be a layer of wood exposed on the side edges (not on the nose or tail, however). You can see it here, directly below the blue top sheet:

So here's the big question: Is this normal? Or is this a manufacturing defect? I would assume there would be a moisture issue with wood exposed like that.